Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

UST President Says He Made Wrong Decision, Invites Tutu to Campus

Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas, has reversed his ban on Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He announced the decision in a letter to students and faculty of the university. Here is the full text of the letter:

Dear members of the St. Thomas community,

One of the strengths of a university is the opportunity that it provides to speak freely and to be open to other points of view on a wide variety of issues. And, I might add, to change our minds.

Therefore, I feel both humbled and proud to extend an invitation to Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at the University of St. Thomas.

Free Speech Under Assault: Archbishop Tutu Barred from Speaking at the University of St. Thomas

The international firestorm which erupted last week after authorities at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota cancelled an invitation to South African Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at the University is yet to subside.

According to Doug Hennes, vice president for university and government relations, the Rev. Dennis Dease, St. Thomas' president, decided to ban Tutu from campus because,

Chicago: A Winter Tale in Pictures

January 2007: Global Warming!!! Where has Winter Gone?
 
February 2007: What Global Warming??!!!

www.flickr.com

Obama Sets out on His Mission to Excite and Unite a Divided Nation

Culled fromThe Independent

A gaffe, they say in politics, is when someone inadvertently blurts out the truth. Thus it was when Joe Biden, the incorrigibly loquacious senator from Delaware, held forth the other day about Barack Obama, his fellow aspirant for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

(c) The Independent

"Look," he declared, "you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

The Legacy of 9/11 in Numbers

From The Independent

• 2,973 Total number of people killed (excluding the 19 hijackers) in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• 72,000 Estimated number of civilians killed worldwide since September 11, 2001 as a result of the war on terror.
• 2,932 Total number of US servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since September 2001.

In Memoriam: Coretta Scott King 1927-2006

“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation."

"I think what I've tried to do is to empower people to understand that they can make a difference. And by using the method of nonviolence as a way of life, it becomes internalized into your life; so everything that you seek to do, you use those principles and those steps, based on those principles, and the steps and methodologies, so that if you have a problem or a conflict in whatever it is you are doing, you are able to better resolve that. And if it is dealing with people, certainly you'll know how to resolve that and become reconciled and to move forward."